Creation of Theme: Meaningful Quotations
A Creative Writing Portfolio Project
I. Preparation:
Create a Table of Contents for your class portfolio’s Major Work. In this table of contents include a chronological
list of your major pieces by title, type of writing, and skills applied. This preparation may be used a culminating
activity for your entire portfolio and can ensure success on the exam.
II. Thematic Exploration:
Find three favorite quotations that best reflect your philosophies of
life. Document where they came from. Try
to avoid sayings or clichés as much as possible.
- Journal about each quotation -- about five
minutes each.
- Meet to share and discuss quotations, giving
ideas for what creative writing might be made out of each.
·
Create a brainstorming list for the ideas you
get from the discussion.
III. The Writing:
Complete the writings described below.
Although you may work on any piece at any time, you will be lead through
the three pieces in class with accompanying mini-lessons relevant to each type
of writing.
- Quotation 1: Write a short story (10 paragraph max) which uses your
first quotation as its theme.
- Quotation 2: Write 50 total lines of poetry in at least two poems of
different types. For the first, use
your second quote as a theme. For
the second, use the quotation in your poem. If you do more, you may use the second
quotation in any other ways you want.
- Quotation 3: Here is a list of writing
types you may choose from for your third quotation (all 4 to 6
paragraphs): monologue, satire, descriptive essay, creative
essay. Use your Portfolio Table
of Contents for Major Works to determine what piece you should
do. You must have at
least four different types of writing in your class portfolio, so
if you do not, select one of the types you have not done yet. If you have already met the four type
requirement, you may select any type of writing in the list.
- Alternate Piece: Write an expository essay explaining the quote
and it's importance in your life.
These should be 4 to 6 paragraphs, and should explore the
quotation's origin, meaning, application in your life, and what it says
about you. It should be informal in
voice and colorfully written. (Only
available in Advanced Creative Writing.)
- Presentation Option: Create poster and present your favorite piece
to the class. Longer pieces will be
presented as excerpts. Only done if
specifically assigned by the instructor.
- Presentation Option 2: Create bumper sticker and present to class
with speech. Only done if
specifically assigned by the instructor.
IV. Assessment: Your
work will be graded as described below. Final Exam for Creative Writing Rubric.
- The written pieces will be graded with the scoring
guide for each individual piece, so make it a point to review those guides
right away. In general, though,
successful completion of each piece will meet the requirements for this
project. In terms of your nine
week’s grade, this activity is worth the equivalent of one or two major
pieces as determined by the instructor.
- As always, prewriting, rough drafts, Revised
Rough Drafts (RRDs), and peer reads are scored for completion and
effectiveness.
- Skills development activities may be assigned
with any mini-lessons taught during the unit. These may be graded for completion or
mastery as determined by the instructor.
- If either Presentation Option is selected, you
will be provided with separate scoring guides.
V. Theme Creation
Journals
1. As quickly as you can,
write down everything you can remember doing in this class. Then, pick out one or two things you are
really proud of having learned or improved and explain how you learned and
improved that (those) skill(s).
2. (15 minutes) Take five
minutes each to explore the meaning and importance to you of each quotation you
have chosen.
3. On a separate piece of
paper, write down six questions you'd like to have answered about your short
story, being sure to leave four lines in between the questions for your peer
reader to answer. Go back to the top of
the paper and, on the top line, write out the quotation which is the theme of
the story.
4. Describe the most
annoying thing in your life right now.
Try to be as powerful as possible with your words. This may be shared so make it school
appropriate.
5. Your overall assessment
of your final project.